Well, what else am I going to do while I'm sick?

Argh. I thought I'd escaped the Ick that's going around. My boyfriend's been sick with a bad cold/flu type thing for a week, and I hadn't had any symptoms until just last night. I had to go to work today, unfortunately, but I left by lunchtime. I've spent a large part of the afternoon knitting, on and off. I've been making good progress lately. Although I'm still doing the same somewhat mind-numbing mesh, I've got a big push these days to really move on it. I think I'm getting that, "I want the finished product!" feeling. I may stay home tomorrow, too, so we'll see how far along I can get.

Wanton's got a brand new bag!

Oh frabjous day! Calloo, callay! At long last, I have a new knitting bag!

I've had a few knitting bags in my time. The first two bags I used, I lost. Left them on trains or subways or wherever, and they never reappeared. I don't think I ever lost any seriously important projects in them, fortunately, but still, it sucked. Then I got a bag sometime in 2004 or very early 2005, which stuck around. It was made of thick, soft, lined fabric with a pretty botanical pattern on the top half. It had no closure and no real compartment except an open pocket inside. I brought it everywhere. I shoved it into other bags or suitcases during travel, sometimes. At other times, I packed it with way more stuff than it could really hold. It got wet. It got dirty. It was washed. It got dirty again. Bits started to unravel or tear. Recently, it had gotten to the point where I was actually embarrassed about carrying it around with me because it was such a wreck. I did some research, and decided that The Bag For Me would be a Swift, by Tom Binh. Go ahead, Google it--you can read all the details there. Suffice it to say, the thing appears to be SO sturdy, and looks SO polished, that I fell in love at first sight. It took a few months, though, for the color I wanted to come back into stock. As soon as I saw that it had been restocked, I ordered one. This time of year is not long after I get Christmas and birthday present money from my parents, and I'm due to get my tax refund any time now, so it's the perfect time of year for "damn, I NEEDED that!" purchases. The Swift came in today. So, friends, I have gone from the bag-lady bag:



to the Cadillac of knitting bags:



Now, how stylin' is that? I put my WIP and associated accessories into it, and retired my old bag to the trash. I'm so excited to knit from the Swift on the bus home today! I just recently had to do a major fix of some of the mesh on my Shipwreck (some dropped stitches and no lifeline--required a lot of patience, but wasn't TOO hard), and I just added a whole bunch of beads last night and did the Russian join this morning, so I'm going full speed ahead again.

Exciting new purchases!

Every year, as a holiday present, my wonderful manager gives me a gift certificate to Windsor Button. Since my boyfriend is working this weekend, and I had no reason to rush home after work last night, I decided to spend it! I pored over the various fingering and laceweight yarns there, and settled on a skein of Handmaiden Sea Silk. Now, the $25 gift certificate didn't cover the price of the yarn, but it DID bring it down to $14, which is a damned cheap price to pay for a skein of such luscious, gorgeous stuff. The colorway is a mix of oranges and reddish purples that might sound incongruous, but it works beautifully, and the colors are VERY me. I'm thrilled to have it. I'm pretty sure I'll end up doing a Swallowtail shawl, since a lot of people have done one of those with a single skein of the Sea Silk, and they all look lovely.

Right now, though, I'm still slogging through the mesh portion of my Shipwreck. I'm about halfway through with that section, and I estimate it'll probably take me a couple of months to finish because it is SO DAMN SLOW. Those beads, oy. But man, they are beautiful. This shawl will be a work of art once it's done and blocked.

Speaking of blocking, about a week ago or so, I saw interlocking foam floor mats at Christmas Tree Shops at four 24-inch tiles to the pack for $10. I snatched up a couple packs today. Now I'll have a surface big enough to block my Shipwreck! Or, you know, a Doctor Who scarf. Or an afghan. Sheesh. Anyway, they don't take up much room when they're stacked up. This is the kind of thing that's really only interesting to knitters, isn't it?

Well, I've had enough of running errands and slogging through snow for one day. I think it's getting on time to treat myself to a manhattan and plop in front of the TV with some knitting. Later, people.

A comic interlude

I've not been getting as much knitting done as I'd like. The beaded faggoting on Shipwreck is slooooooowwww, and I've only really been doing it on the bus ride home, since the boy has been giving me rides to work, and I've been busy in the evenings. Oh well, that will improve with vacation! Anyway, that's why I haven't updated in a while: nothing interesting has been going on. But today, I came up with this. Ahem. *makes with the sexy Eartha Kitt pose*

Santa Baby, slip some Addis under the tree, for me.
I've been knitting too slow, Santa baby,
So hurry from the yarn store tonight.

Santa baby, a little bit of qiviut too,
In blue.
Give that musk-ox a shear,
Santa baby, and hurry from the yarn store tonight.

Think of all the yarns I've missed,
Think of the Alpaca Silk from Debbie Bliss.
Next year I could knit even more
If you'll check off my Christmas list.

Santa baby, I wanna swift,
And really I'm kind of miffed.
Been hand-winding all year,
Santa baby, so hurry from the yarn store tonight.

Santa honey, there's one thing I really do need:
Seed beads
Miyukis would be just fine,
Santa honey, so hurry from the yarn store tonight.

Santa cutie, and fill my stocking with some seacell
'Cause, well,
It's real swell in laceweight,
Santa cutie, so hurry from the yarn store tonight.

Come and trim my Christmas tree,
With some Malabrigo (just a skein or three)
I really do believe in you,
Feel free to stay and stitch 'n' bitch with me!

Santa baby, forgot to mention madelinetosh,
Oh gosh!
And some Noro Kureyon,
Santa baby, so hurry from the yarn store tonight.
Hurry from the yarn store tonight.
Hurry, tonight.

Little drops of golden honey

Last night, I did the doubling row, putting in a lifeline, and then broke the yarn to start stringing beads! So exciting! The beads are just perfect, with as much shine as I'd hoped they'd have. I had some issues with changing needles. Usually, when I need to change needle sizes and I'm working on interchangeables, I will just swap out the tips. It's easy as pie--when you're moving up or down a size or two. This time, I was moving up FOUR sizes, from a 4 to an 8. The stitches simply wouldn't go over the needles. I ended up leaving the size 4 tip on the left hand needle and putting a button thingy on the right side. Then I put a button on one end of my other 40" cable, and a size 8 tip on the other. I can get the tip of the 8 into the stitches enough to knit them, and I'm (slowly) working the knitting onto the new cable as I go. When I reach the end, I'll swap out the button on the new cable for the other size 8 tip, and things should be a little easier.

Pushing the beads along the yarn slows my knitting down considerably, but adding a bead every few stitches (I'm trying to be fairly random, and may end up increasing how many I put on) is fun. I'm excited about how it's going to look! I've pre-wound my next ball of yarn. It seems that this yarn is difficult to do a Russian join on with my chunky-ass Chibi needle, so I should get out my slightly more reasonably-sized yarn needle for that purpose. Still, once the join is in place, the stuff grips like iron and it's as solid as you could like. Awesome.

With any luck, this will not take me forever. I'm surprised by how much it's flown along so far!

New and improved

I was admiring a FO Shipwreck someone had posted on the Sanguine Gryphon forum on Ravelry (also done with Skinny Bugga, but in a different shade). She told me that from row 29 of the Madeira pattern on, she'd used an improved pattern developed by another Ravelry user that produces a more symmetrical-looking lace. I was on row 34 and had been following the pattern as written, but taking a look at my work, I decided that yeah, it WAS kind of off-looking, in spite of being technically correct. I had a lifeline in at row 31. This morning, while my boyfriend was driving me to work, I ripped back to that lifeline and started picking up stitches. When I finish that, I'll tink back to the beginning of row 29 and use the improved pattern.

Amusingly enough, when I went to look at the pattern improvement as described by its creator, I read this in her project notes: "Got to round 34 of the Madiera chart, didn’t like the way it was looking (fix from yesterday wasn’t a fix). Tinked back to end of round 29 and knit as follows[...]" Heh. Looks like we came to that decision in the same place!

Oh, the beads!!! The beads came in yesterday. They look lovely! I got two boxes each of the medium gold and light gold, and one box of the root beer. I figure I'll dump them all in a bag together and mix them up well for maximum randomness. They're going to look like little droplets of honey in a knitted honeycomb! (That's what this yarn looks like. It doesn't actually look so much like a bee, but it does seem to contain all the many amber-gold shades of honey. Beautiful.) I can't wait to start using the beads. I think I might even try just stringing some onto my next ball of yarn (ooh, I actually have to wind that skein into a ball, don't I?) this evening if I get a chance, just to see what they look like on the yarn. :)

So much progress while on vacation!

(This bit actually written on Saturday, 11/26)

I've come a really long way so far on the Shipwreck shawl! I've just put a lifeline through, halfway through the Madeira pattern. Vacations are good for my knitting. I'm finding this shawl a really enjoyable knit so far. The lace patterns have short repeats, which means I don't have to have the focus of a hunting eagle to zip through them. I can look at the pattern, memorize the repeat in a second, and just go. It's so much easier than the Aeolian shawl. It keeps my attention, but doesn't punish me if I let my thoughts wander for a moment. I haven't been doing it while watching TV, but I have been chatting a little with people as I go, and it's good that I can do that. The edging is going to be a lot more mindless, so it'll be a good settle-in-with-a-movie project.

I should plan out how I'm going to string my beads. I might see about asking my friend M if I can borrow her bead stringer. I think she'll know where it is. She usually tends to keep her jewelry supplies a bit more organized than the rest of her house. If that fails, it's possible my friend J has one too. If that fails as well, I guess I'll just have to buy my own. Fire Mountain Gems has them for cheaper than Amazon.com does.

(and this bit written today)

So yeah, still banging away at the Madeira. I'm only a few rows from the end. *searches frantically for wood to knock* I'd better start hunting down a bead spinner. I won't be seeing M for at least a week and a half, and I'm going to want to get started before then. Hmm. Well, it's not as though I even HAVE the beads yet. They'll be coming early this week, though. I wonder how difficult it would be to break the yarn and rejoin it, and have beads go over the join. Would they fit over a Russian join? I might need to try that when I get them.

The leap of faith

The second charted lace pattern in Shipwreck is "Bleeding Heart." It's a ten-row pattern, repeated twice. On that tenth row, there's a note in the pattern saying, "Move marker one stitch to the left before beginning this row." This was the source, for me, of much confusion.

First, I attempted it while I was working on DPNs. When using DPNs, I can't put a marker between the last and first stitches of the round, because that's generally at the end of a needle. So, I put it after the first stitch. Was it already in the right place? Who knew? But before I could actually get to that round, I bollixed up something badly enough that I had to start over. OK. I figured that in the absence of specific directions about where to place a marker initially, it made sense to put it between the last and first stitches, and that would be easier if I switched to circulars before beginning the Bleeding Heart chart. On Take 2, that's what I did.

Then, I understood about moving the marker one stitch over. I didn't understand, though, whether I was supposed to start row 10 AFTER the marker, or before. Before didn't really make sense, and looking at some forum posts on Ravelry confirmed this: I was actually changing the starting place of the row by one stitch. Good enough. But...what was I to do with the stitch that had been the first stitch and was now, thanks to the movement of the marker, the last stitch? It wasn't part of the previous row's pattern repeat, it was just extra. Did I knit it? Slip it? I elected to take off the marker, slip that first stitch onto the right needle, then put the marker on again. I took a deep breath, and took the leap of faith. Round 10 worked up in perfect alignment. Yay!

Next, I was faced with the question of whether or not I was supposed to put the marker back where it had been before beginning the next round. It was not stated to do so in the directions. To be certain, I counted stitches, and sure enough--I needed to just leave it where it was! No need to replace it. Fine by me. I'm in the middle of that second set of Bleeding Heart now. I just wanted to make sure to note down all this stuff so that maybe someone else who's as confused as I was might see it someday on Ravelry!

Bees! Bees! Bees!

Two posts in one day, wow!

Upon finishing Memere's Multnomah, I decided to cast on for Shipwreck. I took out my swift and ball winder, and turned one of the skeins of Skinny Bugga! into a perfect little yarn cake. These guys wind their skeins nicely: this one didn't give me any trouble at all with tangles or knots or breaks or anything.

I started out trying to cast on as instructed in the link provided in the pattern, but many attempts confused the FUCK out of me, so I decided to try a regular knitted cast-on. Well, that left a big and un-fixable hole right in the middle. So, I started digging around. Hey, I'm a researcher. It's what I do. Anyway, in one forum on Ravelry, I found a few links to similar cast-ons. Eventually, I got the hang of one of them, and started knitting. Then, I realized I'd not been paying attention, and had blithely skipped a number of rows. Oops. I frogged (it was only about 10 rows), and cast on again. This time, I've gotten up to row 29, where I'm about to start the second lace pattern. It being after 11 p.m., I've decided to save that for later. I know my limits.

I admit I'm mostly a product knitter. I see stuff and think, "Ooh, that's pretty. I want that." But it's also nice to have some variety in a pattern, and to learn new skills while knitting a new pattern. This one has already taught me that very nice cast-on for circular shawls. I'm really pleased with how it turns out. The process of doing it is a bit of a pain in the arse, requiring some serious twisting around of the hands, but it works.


The yarn is just beautiful to work with, and I can't wait until I have it on my nice Harmony Options needles. So far, at 144 stitches, I'm still on DPNs. It's looking nice, though. I'd LIKE to knit more tonight, but it probably wouldn't be a good idea. I'll pick it up again tomorrow--maybe even while I'm at the Knitting Kumquat's birthday party (a.k.a. Comfy Cozy Kumquat Day). I'll at least have to show her the yarn and the pattern, because I KNOW she's a Sanguine Gryphon fan, same as I am. It's sad that they had to split into two companies just as I was getting to know them, but I'll get to know the two new companies, too. :)

Finished Memere's shawl

I finished the large-size Multnomah I made for my Memere today. After binding off last night, I steam-blocked/killed it today. Turned out nicely. I didn't melt it, and it did keep its shape. Yay! I hope she likes it. The three balls of Wool-Ease were plenty for ten repeats of the F&F pattern, though I was pretty sure it wouldn't be enough for eleven AND a bind-off. I quit while I was ahead, and trusted that blocking would help. It did. Man, I'm so glad I blocked it. The difference is night and day! I'm going to throw it in the washer and dryer to soften it up and fluff it a bit, as well as to give it a nice scent from the fabric softener (because it smells of wet sheep now). I'm going to wait until Christmas to get pictures, on Memere. Oh, except...I won't BE at Christmas this year, with my family. I should ask Papa to take a few. His will be better than mine would be anyway. Maybe I can convince my sister to buy a shawl pin to go with it. Romi's cat-shaped one might be a good choice--the non-sterling ones are only about $30 each.